Straight from the heart

A high-fiber carrot cake

Inspired by one of the episodes in MasterChef Australia, I decided that I, too, would bake a carrot cake, but with a twist. My version would be gluten and lactose-free!

To be completely honest, I’ve never been a fan of carrot cake. However, it’s been a while since I baked something, and it was my day off. So, to kill some time, I thought I’d give it a go. As usual, I took a couple of recipes on the net and altered them to suit my purpose. Woah! I was positively surprised by the outcome. The cake had a nice cinnamon color, and was baked evenly! It was moist, and not overwhelmingly sweet. I struggled a bit with the icing, because I was using yogurt instead of cream cheese. To make matter worse, I overlooked the temperature of the yogurt when I added it to the butter! It was cold, and naturally, I got small lumps of butter! 😀  I managed to fix the icing, and it has become relatively healthy! It’s rich in fiber – thanks to psyllium husk powder.

What I love about this cake is that, it allows you to enjoy the pleasure of eating a dessert without overindulging. You simply can’t, because you feel full just after consuming one slice! And this is due to its fiber-rich frosting. Everyone, I present to you one of my relatively healthy desserts 🙂

Gluten-free & lactose-free carrot cake with sour cream icing top with chopped walnuts

Servings: 8 slices

Ingredients for the cake:

• 140 g unsalted butter, softened
• 75 g sugar
• 6 tsp stevia
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 250 g grated carrots
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking powder (cream of tartar and baking soda 2:1)
• 25 g potato starch flour
• 50 g almond flour
• 125 g rice flour

Ingredients for the icing:

• 300 g soya natural yogurt or lactose-free sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp psyllium husk powder
• lemon zest
• 100 g icing sugar
• lemon juice
• chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160°C (Gas mark 2).
2. Grease a 20″ round baking tin.
3. Mix the flour, the cinnamon and the baking powder together.
4. Whip the butter and sugar until soft and creamy.
5. Stir in the grated carrot.
6. Add 1 egg at a time into the mixture. Mix.
7. Add the flour mixture in. Mix.
8. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix.
9. Tip the batter into the tin.
10. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
11. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 mins, then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
12. Meanwhile, make the icing. Add the yogurt, vanilla extract, lemon zest and icing sugar. Blend.
13. Add the psyllium husk powder, and blend.
14. Add lemon juice, taste. Keep adding and tasting until the balance of sweetness and sourness is reached.
15. When the cake is cool, add the chopped walnuts.
16. Spread the icing on top, and sprinkle with the remaining chopped nuts.

Note:

Adding a bit of nutmeg to the cake batter would enhance the flavour.

For sweet potato cake:

• 90 g unsalted butter, softened
• 50 g coconut oil
• 30 g palm sugar
• 3 tsp stevia
• 2 ¼ tbsp lemon juice
• 150 g grated sweet potato
• 30 g raisins
• 20 g chopped walnuts
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tsp baking powder (cream of tartar and baking soda 2:1)
• 25 g potato starch flour
• 40 g almond flour
• 10 g glutinous rice flour
• 125 g rice flour